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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1758.PDF
FLIGHT, 9 December 1955 881 CIVIL AVIATION BOEING 707s FOR BRANIFF uniTberDof B2Tg 707s on order rose t0 55 °n Novemberh, when Braniff Airways agreed to purchase five of the new &Vrai£P10nr7S "•f 3 J°tal cost'Jnc^d^S spare engines and parts, of$30m (£ 10.7m). It 1S unofficially reported that Sabena are alsoon the point of placing an order for five Boeing 707s At present Douglas are ahead of Boeing in the jet transport sales battle, havingnow sold a total of 69 DC-8s—25 to Pan American, 30 to United six to National and eight to K.L.M. Boeing customers, in addi-tion to Braniff, are Pan American (20) and American Airlines (30) Braniff, who operate a fleet of some 70 DC-6s, Convairs andDC-3s on both domestic and international services, are the first Boeing 707 customer to specify installation of the J75 instead ofthe J57 turbojet. For "security" reasons, the J75 is officially referred to in the announcement as a "Pratt and Whitney engineof advanced design." According to the announcement, Braniffs Boeings will becapable of cruising at more than 600 m.p.h. and will have a range of 4,000 miles with full payload. Fuel capacity is quoted as15,448 U.S. gallons and gross weight as 248,000 lb. A combina- tion layout will provide for 49 first-class and 69 coach-class seatsin two separate cabins. Delivery of the first of BranifFs 707s is due in October 1959. The company also has on order sevenDC-7Cs, delivery of which will begin in the late summer of 1956. TOMORROW'S TRANSPORTS CJPEAKING at East Dereham on the eve of his departure for the& United States, Mr. Reginald Maudling, Minister of Supply, confirmed that first steps had been taken towards the developmentof a new British airliner for service in the mid-1960s. "The Government," said Mr. Maudling, "is discussing with the airlineoperators, and will then discuss with manufacturers, the next British civil aircraft which can be, and must be, a significantimprovement on anything flying today. You can see in the Viscount and in the prospects for the Vanguard what can be doneby collaboration between airline operators, manufacturers and Government. This is the process we are now starting for thenext British airliner to follow on those of which we are so proud today." It seems certain that this new type will be a long-haul aircraft,though Mr. Maudling did not specifically refer to it as such. Earlier, Sir Miles Thomas, chairman of B.O.A.C., had statedthat the Corporation and the Ministry of Supply were discussing the possibilities of a new turbojet aircraft for non-stop servicebetween London and New York. There has been a good deal of speculation, however, as to theform which such an aircraft would take. According to the Daily Mail, B.O.A.C.'s specification is for a 120-passenger aircraftcapable of flying at more than 500 m.p.h., with sufficient range to operate non-stop transatlantic services with 100 per cent regu-larity, yet sufficiently light to operate the Commonwealth routes. The same newspaper has reported, however, that both Americanand British manufacturers have plans for supersonic long-range transports for introduction in the 1965-70 period. The LockheedAircraft Corporation, it states, are planning an aircraft capable of carrying 100-200 passengers from New York to London in3i hours; and the Hawker Siddeley Group are also said to be working on a supersonic airliner. According to the SundayExpress, the 1965 British jet transport will be a relatively small aircraft, carrying 50 passengers at a speed of 1,000 m.p.h. In the speech referred to above the Minister of Supply wasconcerned with more immediate problems: — "It is essential," Mr. Maudling said, "to realize the strength of thecompetition we are facing, particularly from America. We have in this country designers as brilliant and craftsmen as skilled as any in the world.But America has her brilliant designers also, and backing them up are resources and a home market many times as great as ours. In thesecircumstances it is obviously the course of wisdom to concentrate our efforts where they will be most effective, and not to be led astray by theidea that if we are to compete in anything we must compete in everything. "The design and development resources of the British industry arealready fully stretched. I see that the Bristol Company are contem- plating working with a large American firm on the design and develop-ment of the Britannia successor. If we overload the industry the result can only be difficulties, delays and frustrations."We must also remember that most world airlines have a tradition of buying American and have long-established contacts with their Americansuppliers. To gain orders our British manufacturers must produce machines significantly better than the American and must have a homepurchaser who can first operate and develop the aircraft. In the case of the Viscount you have the best possible examples of these principles."Substantial claims are made by Messrs. Vickers for the performance of the civil version of their V.I000. But it exists only on paper. NoGovernment money has been spent on the civil version of the aircraft nor have the firm themselves proposed to invest any of their own moneyon its development. The Government and the firm both realize that without a home operator to purchase it an aircraft of this magnitudecannot be launched in world markets. "What does this mean for the British aircraft industry and its exportprospects? It is the language of wildest exaggeration to talk about abandoning the Atlantic to the Americans. They, on their side, haveno transatlantic turboprop aircraft to compete with our Britannia. All that we shall not be able to offer will be this. In the early 1960s theAmericans say they will have, and we will not have, transatlantic non- stop pure jet aircraft which can offer the advantages of some saving oftime on the journey at considerable additional cost. "Our policy must surely be to build on success. With the Britannia,the Viscount, the Comet and their family of successors we can offer the world an unbeatable range of aircraft for middle and long distance travel.If we exploit their possibilities to the full there will be rich markets for the British industry for many years to come. But this will only bepossible if, in the face of growing competition, we concentrate on these aircraft every scrap of design and development effort we can muster." It seems unlikely, in view of remarks made both by the Ministryof Supply and by B.O.A.C., that there is now any prospect of a B.O.A.C. order for either of the new American jet transports. Itis of interest, therefore, to review the probable competitive posi- tion in which the Corporation will find itself during the yearsahead. Pan American are expected to introduce the DC-7C on non-stopservices in both directions in June next year, thereby establishing a lead. B.O.A.C.'s introduction of this type is now expected to takeplace about six months later. After a further twelve months, the Britannia 300 L.R. should be ready for transatlantic service, pro-viding B.O.A.C. (and El Al and Canadian Pacific) with the largest, fastest and most comfortable aircraft on the route. The Cornet 4,if required, would be available for one-stop transatlantic service in 1959. In theory, therefore, B.O.A.C. should have turned thecompetition tables in four years from now. While America looks to the Douglas and Boeing transports torestore the balance of power by 1960, B.O.A.C. appear to be banking on the Britannia and its recently announced successor(a combined Bristol-Convair-Canadair project) to carry a sub- stantial share of transatlantic traffic. The Britannia successor,which is being designed around four Bristol B.E.25 turboprops, should have a cruising speed of 500 m.p.h., which is not a greatdeal below diat of the Douglas and Boeing jets. Its average Atlantic flight time, in fact, should not exceed that of the purejet aircraft by more than two hours. So long as the present system of flying the Atlantic by night is maintained, this additional journeytime is not expected to deter the majority of potential travellers, especially where sleeping accommodation is provided. It is the intention of Bristol-Convair-Canadair that the Britanniasuccessor and its engines will be produced concurrently on both sides of the Atlantic for delivery in the early 1960s. The stagewhich its design has reached is not yet known. It is reported, however, that it will be a double-deck aircraft with seats in theforward part of the lower deck and a rear lounge. CTVTL AVIATION AT STRASBOURG REPRESENTATIVES of 19 European governments met atStrasbourg on November 29th to open the first session of the European Civil Aviation Conference. Devoted to the many-sided task of co-ordinating air transport in Europe, the confer- ence is the outcome of a special meeting convened by I.C.A.O. inthe spring of 1955 at the request of the Council of Europe. One of the problems under discussion is the drafting of a multi-lateral agreement on the exchange of traffic rights for scheduled services in the European region. Observers at Strasbourg lastweek believed that there was little prospect of concurrence on a workable formula which would bring about any sweepingchanges in the present "give-and-take" system of bilateral agree- ments. It was hoped, however, that the Strasbourg conferencemight produce a multilateral agreement on rights for non- scheduled services, thereby planting the seed of a more liberalinternational policy towards the exchange of rights. Britain is well represented in the conference, with Sir GeorgeCribbett, Deputy-Secretary of the M.T.C.A. and a veteran policy- maker at all major post-war civil aviation meetings, as leader ofthe U.K. delegation. There is also an important British element in the International Federation of Independent Air Transport(F.I.T.A.P.), one of the many international bodies acting as obser- vers at Strasbourg.To mark the opening of the conference, and to make its aims and constitution better known to delegates, F.I.T.A.P. held areception in Strasbourg on November 30th at which the hosts included A. Cdre. G. J. Powell, chairman of the Federation, SirHugh P. Lloyd and Mr. G. H. Freeman, directors of Transair, Ltd. Several members of the F.I.T.A.P. party flew to Strasbourgfrom Croydon in one of Transair's fleet of DC-3s. We hope to say more about the conference in next week's issue of Flight.
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